Bowling Industry News

In highest scoring medal round ever in the history of WTBA World Championships, Squad 1 leaders John Szczerbinski (Roto Grip) and Chris Barnes of the United States rolled games of 290 and 279 to defeat Squad 2 and overall leaders Pasi Uotila and Osku Palermaa of Finland 569-473, to cruise to the Men's Doubles gold medal.

Finland and USA dominated the Doubles qualifying on the 39-feet Seoul lane conditioning pattern with two teams from each country advancing to the medal round.

Szczerbinski and Barnes, who were the only doubles of Squad 1, who made the cut to the top four teams, finished qualifying in third position trailing to Uotila and Palermaa and their team mates John Janawicz and Mike Fagan.

Finns Joonas Jehkinen and Petteri Salonen were third in Squad 2 and fourth overall to set up one All-American and one All-Finnish semifinal.

Uotila and Palermaa ousted Jehkinen and Salonen, 480-453, while Szczerbinski and Barnes survived a strong charge by Janawicz and Fagan, 472-458, to advance to the gold medal match.

All players but Szczerbinski started the title match with a strike. "Big John" spared a 10-pin and reeled off eleven consecutive strikes for 290.

Barnes spared a 4-pin in his second frame and reeled off nine consecutive strikes before he closed out the match with a nine-count (4-pin) for 279 and a 569 game, one of the highest doubles games in the WTBA history. The record is 599 by Colombia's Andres Gomez and Jaime Monroy in 1999.

Uotila and Palermaa finished with 453 to earn the silver medal. Janawicz and Fagan shared the bronze medal with Jehkinen and Salonen.

With two of four events in the books in the men's division, Barnes leads in All-Events (combined qualifying results in Singles, Doubles, Trios and Team) with 2866 total and an average of 238.33. Martin Larsen of Sweden moved into second place with 2745 while O'Neill slipped to third place with 2691.

Action shifts to Women's Doubles on Thursday. The 212 women from 36 countries will be split into two squads starting at 8 a.m. and 1 p.m. PDT, respectively, to bowl six games of qualifying on the 39-feet Seoul pattern, the longer of the two oil pattern to be used in this championships. The top four duos after qualifying will bowl for the medals on Thursday evening featuring one-game matches.

The World Tenpin Bowling Association World Championships run from Aug. 16 thru 31, 2013 at Sunset Station's Strike Zone in Henderson, Nev. in the Las Vegas area. The Championships will award medals in six disciplines - Singles, Doubles, Trios, Team, All Events and Masters.

The entire competition will be broadcast live on BOWL.com's BowlTV. Bowling fans will be able to watch live and on demand for free. The schedule is available at BOWL.com/LiveStream.